Gonstead Family Chiropractic- Blog

San Diego is one of the greatest communities in America - personal opinion. Every October we do a costume drive for a special school in downtown San Diego - The Monarch School. The Monarch school is a school that helps educate and house children affected by homelessness. We all know how homeless in San Diego is of growing concern. I am a San Diego chiropractor and also run a non-profit in La Jolla, San Diego. It is really important for us to give back to our amazing community. This year is no different. From October 1st to October 25th we are conducting our third annual Costume Drive. We will be collecting gently used and new costumes designed for children kindergarten to 5th grade, which equates to kids size small to adult mediums. There are two drop off locations. The first drop off location is our chiropractic office in La Jolla, Gonstead Family Chiropractic. We are a centrally located chiropractic office in San Diego right off of the 5 and 52 highways. The second costume drop off location is Avanti Harcourts - The Salas Group located in Solana Beach. Last year we were able to collect close to 80 costumes, where the children from the Monarch School were then able to pick out their favorite costume to dress up for Halloween. Our chiropractic office in San Diego is actually going to throw in an added bonus this year. We are going to award anyone who donates a costume a chiropractic examination (neurological, chiropractic, orthopedic), full spine x-ray, spinal scan, and a report of findings normally $150 for the price of $50. It is our way to give back to our community, especially for those willing to give back to it as well. As part of our office policy, we are unable to award this amazing benefit to anyone whom is a personal injury, workers compensation, or medicare patient. To sweeten this even more, as your chiropractoc in San Diego, I am going to donate a portion of all new examinations and x-rays to Hands For Life UTC, a non-profit that gives back to our community both locally here in San Diego at Father Joes Village Health Center, Tijuana, as well as serving the people far less fortunate in the Dominican Republic. So I am asking all of you that live in San Diego, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Clairemont, UTC, Del Mar, and all surrounding communites of San Diego County to please reach out to offer any gently used or new costumes.

Chiropractic in San Diego can have a lot of different meanings to everyone. So your San Diego Chiropractor, Dr Zach Beatty DC will explain what chiropractic really is to its truest form. In our La Jolla chiropractic office, we see a lot of the obvious symptoms, low back pain, neck pain, headaches, hip pain, and mid back pain to name a few. We also see other symptoms, digestive issues, sciatica, pain in the arms, carpal tunnel, ear infections, and much more. So how does someone feel qualified enough to help with such a wide range of conditions? Fantastic question, with a very simple answer. Our nervous system. Chiropractic adjustments are aimed to remove nerve interference or pressure on the nerves. Our nervous system is our master control unit. It literally controls every single muscle, tissue, gland, and organ in our entire body. Imagine being responsible for trillions up trillions of things at once, that's a lot of responsibility and a lot of demand. Lets put this in perspective, if you went to see a chiropractor in La Jolla. You have not ate in weeks, you would be able to survive, one could also survive days without water, even minutes without blood, but if your nervous system was compromised significantly, you would not be able to outlast a nanosecond. So it literally is the most important system in our entire body. It controls EVERYTHING, no joke. Our nervous system actually has two major components of it, the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. Think of it like our cars. We have a brake and gas pedal. One speeds up, while the other slows us down. Our body is the exact same. We all have heard of the fight or flight response, correct? People in today's society, especially around La Jolla, Pacific Beach, Del Mar, Clairemont, and all of San Diego are ramped up, full throttle, go go go. It is called sympathetic overdrive. Especially Type A personality people. As a chiropractic in La Jolla our primary objective is to get your nervous system to function properly, this allows so many ailments to self resolve. We are at the truest form of being, self healing. If you get a paper-cut, it is going to heal on its own. If you get a cold, you will feel better on your own. If you get sciatica pain, digestive issues, low back pain, allergies, this is a compromise of your nervous system, whether the nerve is compressed creating radiating pain down you leg or the nerves to your digestive tract are irritated. It boils down to the nervous system being altered. We specialize in the removal of that irritation through safe, gentle, and effective chiropractic adjustments. So back to sympathetic overdrive. Our body is pressing the gas all day long, all week long, all month long, etc. At some point our nervous system is going to run out of gas and things will start to break down. The tires will be worn down, the engine will be sluggish, a highlight will dim, and we will start to have allergies, digestive issues, low back pain, headaches. So we take the care to the mechanic - chiropractor in San Diego - to fix it up, realign it, fine tune it, and get it back to showroom quality. It sounds simple, and sometimes it is, sometimes it is so far from easy that it will wear you down mentally. Through our chiropractic adjustments in La Jolla we are able to apply the "brake" and slow the body down. Allow the body to self heal, unlike our cars they cannot self heal, but our bodies can. We need to give them a chance to do so. Give them a chance to heal inside out (natural health), not outside in (pharmecuetical). Find your nearest chiropractor in La Jolla or chiropractor in San Diego to get your life back to optimal health from the inside out. Get your body to be able to adapt and self heal at optimal levels. Please feel free to reach out to us with any questions, concerns, or if you are looking for a Gonstead Chiropractor in near you. Our job is to educate, help others, and that means even with advice or to locate someone near them to be able to express life at its fullest.

Everyone these days has heard of a chiropractor in San Diego and of course everyone wants to find the best chiropractor in San Diego. However, the most important thing is knowing what chiropractic is and what chiropractic is not. Some of the questions we hear are, do chiropractic adjustments hurt, will the adjustments help low back pain, neck pain, headaches, and many more. So what is it?! Chiropractic in its truest forms focuses on the most important system in your body ,the nervous system. The American Chiropractic Association defines chiropractic as Chiropractic is a health care profession that focuses on disorders of the musculoskeletal system and the nervous system, and the effects of these disorders on general health. Who gives a hoot about the nervous system, well you should and the reasons why will blow you away. Your nervous system controls everything we do on a daily, hourly, secondly moment. On average one can survive without food 20 days, without water a week, with blood loss a few minutes, without nerve supply instantaneous. Think about that someone who is cut with a knife and bleeding can survive for a few minutes, however someone with a severed spinal cord losses all function from there instantly. So it is very important, but more important is what the system controls, EVERYTHING. It also affects how we develop or how our children develop. If you are curious as to how the nervous system can affect your child's develop, take a look into this article on the nervous system. Yes we are a kid chiropractor in San Diego. We love seeing children to allow them to have their happiest and healthiest lives possible! As a Gonstead Chiropractor in San Diego we use a diagnostic tool that allows us to see how your nervous system is truly functioning. This tool is used on ever visit in our San Diego chiropractic office to ensure the proper function of the most important system in your body. Make sure whoever your chiropractor is, that they use some form of tool to adequately observe your nervous system, without this we resort to symptoms only and that puts us back into the medical mindset, no pain, no problem. So yes we do not confuse people who say we can help with neck pain, low back pain, headaches, digestive issues, etc. But also realize the true reason for chiropractic is the removal of neurological compromise. Not to dive too deep down a rabbit hole, but lets take a quick example that we can all relate to. Car problems, more specifically car engine problems. So imagine the the check engine light goes on your car. First step is to get the codes read by Autozone, your dealership, etc. They use a diagnostic tool to read the computer chip code. Much like we do within our chiropractic office in San Diego. So this short article is made to help you determine what chiropractic can do for you and what chiropractic is in its truest of forms. Always think of your body as a self healing being. If you get a paper-cut, you do not need to go to the Emergency Room as it will heal on its own. Also think of a headache and you take an ibuprofen or advil, my question is do you have an ibuprofen or advil deficiency? Because that is what is seems to be, when we get a headache that is the check engine light going off on your care, something is not right whether is blood chemistry, cervical curve structure, dehydration, or something else.

Gonstead Family ChiropracticGonstead Chiropractor in San DiegoDr Zach Beatty, DC

What in the world is a chiropractor in San Diego doing talking about nutrition for?! Well that is a great question. It is a simple answer. As a chiropractor in San Diego we focus on the whole body, not just the spine. Not to discount the extreme power of a chiropractic adjustment to our nervous system. So we obviously look first at the spine, but in today's society there are so many ailments stemming from the foods we are consuming. So by changing someones nutritional pattern, they can expect to see some drastic changes to their body. There are some key essentials when talking about nutrition. We will just skim the surface in today's blog post about nutrition. In later articles we will dive much further into specifics of nutrition. Dr Zach is a Gonstead chiropractor in San Diego. He focuses on the person as a whole. This includes chiropractic adjustments for the obvious low back pain, neck pain, headaches, but also overall health as well as nutrition. Nutritional changes to oneself not only creates a visual change, it also provides health internally. There are a wide array of tips and tricks, but it really comes down to some simple basics when looking into nutrition. Here are the top 10 nutritional basics we have narrowed it down to.

1. Sodium - Keep it at a minimumSodium for those who may not know is salt. It is not the flavor of the salt that is of concern. It is what it does to the body. Before talking about the negative things it does, lets be positive first. If we remember back to high school biology - Sodium/Potassium pump that is required for our bodies cells to function so do NOT completely push Sodium aside. Sodium is what can create a heavy thirst sensation, it also increases our body to retain or hold water, but what it commonly gets noted for is increasing our blood pressure.

2. Whole Grains - Consume them Hesitant to put this as many people think all grains are equal. They are not. Cereal, quick packets of breakfast oatmeal, etc are not good grains. Even boxed pasta in general is not an ideal form of grains. Focus on whole grains if you are going to consume them.

4. Calories - Eat LessEveryone has tried one diet or another. When you boil down all of the fluff of each and every diet, it comes down to one simple concept. Eat less calories than you burn. That is if your goal like most is to lose weight.

5. Produce - Eat More If your grandmother is a lot like mine growing up. It was mandatory to eat your vegetables or you were not done. Well they were on to something. Produce is a key essential to all basis of nutrition. San Diego chiropractor - Dr Zach Beatty, DC agrees. He encourages all patients in his chiropractic office in San Diego to eat produce. It creates roughage for better digestion.

6. Protein - DiversifyThink of your protein intake like your investment plans. What is the basic to that? Diversify. Spread out your assets over multiple categories. When consuming protein, think the same way. There is always the debate of red meat, lean meat, etc. Well They all have their benefits. There are actually other forms of protein outside of just meat. You can get your protein from things like nuts, legumes, and beans.

7. Dairy - "Low Fat" Now this one will get some controversy of course. However I am not a big fan of low fat dairy. When something has been altered it changes it nutritional value, plain and simple. Also fats are incredibly important for our bodies. So keep eating good healthy fats. If you eat dairy, up the fat content a little bit. Your body will be thanking you.

8. Saturated/Trans Fats - AvoidThis has been a topic that has spread across the globe like wildfire, as it should. So many fast food restaurants were using these for almost everything. It got to the point cities, even countries put laws in place to protect its people from consuming these saturated/trans fats.

10. Dessert - Minimize Everyone has a sweet tooth at one time or another. They can be addicting, but more importantly they are typically made from foods that should be avoided. They should be consumed in moderation if consumed at all.

Growing up it was presented to us as a food pyramid, not is it presented to children in San Diego and across the country as a food plate. Again as your La Jolla chiropractor I encourage all of you to take these tips, do more research specifically and add them accordingly to your already existing diet.

Finding the best chiropractor in San Diego is like finding a needle in a haystack. There is a San Diego chiropractor on every single corner it seems. So what sets our La Jolla chiropractor apart from the rest? Well the answer comes down to the technique which we use, just as much as the personality and skillset of our Gonstead chiropractor. San Diego chiropractor, Dr Zach Beatty, DC specializes in the Gonstead chiropractic technique. The technique we use is known as the Gonstead technique, however we really look at it as a system not just a technique. Gonstead chiropractic is broken down into five major components we use to analyze the spine prior to any chiropractic adjustment taking place. As a Gonstead chiropractor we seek to find the root cause of your health issues, not just simply cover the symptoms up and kick you out the door til something "hurts" again. The five major components are visualization, instrumentation, palpation, x-ray imaging, and symptomatology. Visualization is where we analyze the way you hold yourself in a postural sense. Do you have forward head tilt, do you have one shoulder higher than the other, do you have a dropped arch, etc. By looking at this we can note a lot of things about the health and condition of your spine. But again, this is only one component of our very in depth analysis. The second component is instrumentation. We use a handheld device known as as a Nervoscope. It sounds fancy, however it has been around for a very long time. What it does is it will read for changes along your spine. It aids in the detection of spinal misalignment as well as potential spinal nerve irritation. When there is spinal irritation it decreases its function up to 60% instantaneously. Majority of the time with spinal irritation there is a subluxation of a specific vertebra along your spinal column which our San Diego chiropractic office specializes in correcting. The third component is palpation. Prior to delivery a chiropractic adjustment, it is crucial to motion the specific joint to see how it is locked up, this motioning of the joint to see how it functions is known as palpation. The fourth component is x-ray imaging. As most patient come in, everyone has heard of radiation exposure. Let us be very clear. We do not expose people to unnecessary radiation and our x-rays are equivalent to a air plane flight from New York to Colorado, while a CAT scan be upwards of 500 x-rays done at once. So lets not fret over our x-rays. We focus on taking full spine x-rays due to the fact that our bodies are built much like a house. If our foundation is off so is the rest of the house, much like our bodies. If we have headaches or neck pain, it is very common to see low back pain or not to be found as a causing issue. The fifth component is symptomatology. This happens during your first chiropractic visit to your San Diego chiropractor. We listen to what is going on with you and combine that with the four other components of our Gonstead Chiropractic analysis through our thorough chiropractic examination and full spine x-rays to find the root cause. As noted above, there are five key components as to what sets Gonstead chiropractor Dr Zach Beatty DC apart as your San Diego Chiropractor, but that is only one facet. Another is the chiropractic adjustment style we use. Most of the time you will see someone getting their neck adjusted laying face up. While it sounds great to hear pops and cracks, it may not be the best for your long term spinal health. Our Gonstead neck adjustments are performed in a seated position. There are many ﻿YouTube videos﻿ out there showing exactly how you will be adjusted in our chiropractic office in La Jolla San Diego. So when performing a Gonstead chiropractic adjustment, we focus on delivering a very precise chiropractic adjustment. Getting adjusted by a Gonstead chiropractor in San Diego, we talk a lot about being a sniper versus a shotgun shooter. Since we see a lot of military in San Diego, it seems to make a lot of sense. We look to make a very accurate, gentle, yet effective chiropractic adjustment to maximize the results for our patients. So when searching for the best chiropractor in San Diego or the best chiropractor in La Jolla, please think of us as we treat our patient as if they were family. It is one thing to say and another to do what we say. We have patient from all over San Diego county, Pacific Beach, La Jolla, Santee, Mission Valley, Oceanside, and much more. We cannot wait to welcome you into our San Diego chiropractic office with opens arms. Give us a call today to schedule your appointment with Gonstead chiropractor in San Diego, Dr Zach Beatty, DC.

Living in San Diego, everyone is always trying to be beach ready! Well as your San Diego Chiropractor, we are no different. One way most people look to be beach ready at all times is through diet, some through exercise, and other various activities. However we are going to focus on diet. So many people ask what should they eat, what diet is the best. Well diets really boil down to a very simple formula, consume (eat) less calories than you burn. You are bound to lose weight by following that simple formula. But at our chiropractic office in San Diego, we want more than just a weight loss. We want overall health benefits that can play a huge factor in our patients lives. We want life changes, not a today change, or a tomorrow change when discussing true health. San Diego chiropractor Dr Zach Beatty will discuss what intermittent fasting is, how to intermittent fast, as well as what the benefits are outside of weight loss. Intermittent fasting is not something new to our world, regardless of how many people are now reaping its benefits. This form of eating has been around for centuries. For example dating back to the day of hunting and gathering they would eat when they caught ultimately a fasting period of time without eating, religions ie muslims fast for an entire month during Ramadan from sun up to sun down. That should give a pretty good idea of how long this new "fad" has been going on in our world. So lets get right down to what intermittent fasting truly is. Intermittent Fasting is a cycled way of eating. It revolves around various forms. The most common ones are the 16/8 method, the 24 hour fast, a 5:2 fast, and alternate fast. The 16/8 method is the intermittent fast that as your San Diego Chiropractor use, however in our chiropractic office in San Diego have many patients do the other forms. The 16/8 method is where you fast (do not eat) for 16 hours and will consume food for the remaining 8 hours. The easiest example of this would be to consume food 1pm to 9pm. No more eating after 9pm, until again at 1pm the next day. This would create a 16 hour fasting time frame. This type of fasting can be done day in and day out. The 24 hour fast is one that should only be performed 1-2 times a week. It is where you go 24 hours without eating, so again do not perform this more than once or twice a week. Another way to intermittent fast is to do a 5:2 fast. This is where one should eat approximately 500-600 calories two consecutive days. The other five days eat normal calories. This will get you into that fasting stage. Lastly the alternate fast is where one would consume food every other day. This is all great, but what are the benefits for doing such a daunting change to our eating habits. There are 10 evidence based health benefits of intermittent fasting. however some of the major ones are obviously weight lose, but more importantly decreases risk of type II diabetes, decreases oxidative stress and inflammation in the body, benefits to heart health, helps cellular repair, and also good for your brain. There have been several studies on the benefits via intermittent fasting. Some have shown a decrease in fat body composition, decreased blood sugar levels, decreased inflammation markers, increase in HDL while decreasing LDL's Cholesterol and triglycerides, as well as improving cognitive factors. These are some massive benefits and are extremely important to the point that these could honestly help extend ones lifespan. As previously stated by your La Jolla Chiropractor, it may not be a change today or tomorrow, but there will be positive change. So give this intermittent fasting thing a chance. You will not be disappointed, even though it will be challenging at first to skip breakfast it will get easier and you will become less hungry. Over time the benefits in which one will get will far outweigh the cons of not eating for certain periods of time. It takes 21 days to create a habit and only a couple of days to break that habit forever. So jump both feet in and if you have questions along the way give our chiropractic office in La Jolla a call or shoot us an email.